By: by Scott Lipsky
Box Scores:
Game 1 Game 2
TROY, Ala. – The Kennesaw State Owls continued to pitch well on Tuesday, and saw their bats erupt in the second game, allowing them to come away with a road split of the Troy Trojans, dropping the opener, 2-1 in extra innings before coming away victorious, 7-3.
Keeping opposing runs off the board continued to not be a problem for the Owls (14-10), whose pitching staff has a 1.52 earned run average over the last eight games. After Jessica Cross and Cat Tarvin combined to allow just one earned run in the loss to open up the double dip, Abbey Meixel and Amanda Henderson would prove to be almost as effective of a duo. Meixel would toss three innings, allowing one run on just two hits, striking out five, before giving way to Henderson in the fourth inning with the squad ahead 7-1. Henderson, who came into Tuesday having given up just three earned runs in her last 22 innings of work, was solid, as well, allowing just two runs on four hits to keep the Black and Gold out in front for the duration of the game.
The difference-maker for the Owls in the second game was their offense. They began their surge in the top of the third inning, jumping ahead 3-0 thanks to a combination of clutch hitting, smart base running and some miscues by the Troy (19-12) defense. Jensen Hackett and Ashlee Burkett started off the frame with back-to-back singles to left field and were joined on base by Sara Sikes, who reached by way of a bobbled ground by the Troy shortstop. Jessica Cross would then lift a fly ball to medium-depth center field that was deep enough to score Hackett from third base.
Swanson would pop out to second base during the next at-bat, but Burkett took a few steps towards home from third base, forcing a throw by the second baseman, who threw the ball over the catcher’s head to the backstop and scored Burkett easily. Two batters later, the Black and Gold would get the clutch two-out hitting they have been looking for, as Brittany Moore smoked a line drive to center field to score Sikes and make it 3-0.
Kennesaw State’s bats erupted in the fourth inning when Burkett hit a two-run home run to right center field to make it 5-1, her second round-tripper of the season. Following a single to center field by Sikes, Jessica Cross hit her second home run of the twin bill, this one in almost the exact same spot as Burkett’s just two batters earlier, to make it 7-1 and provide the Owls all of the offense they would need.
Cross and Tarvin would not get the same type of run support in the first game. In dropping their third, 2-1, extra-inning game over the last five contests, they could not take advantage of five hits and three Troy errors, stranding eight runners throughout the course of the contest. Following a Cross solo home run in the first inning that gave them a 1-0 lead, Troy would tie things up in the bottom of the frame and that’s how the score stayed all the way until the eighth inning.
The Owls threatened on several occasions, first loading the bases with one out in the third inning off a hit and a pair of Trojan errors, then again loading them up with one out in the top of the eighth, but were unable to score on either occasion.
Troy, who was held to just five hits in the first game, capitalized in the bottom of the eighth to score the game-winner. The Trojans would bunt their automatic runner on second base, who was placed there with the International Tie Breaker rule in effect, over to third, which brought Michelle Hewett to the plate. Hewett hit a high chopper to first base that hit off of the top of Burkett’s outstretched glove, as she was playing in front of the base. She had to reach behind her to recover the ball, but by then Ashley Adkins had scored from third base, ending the first game with a 2-1 decision in favor of the home team.
The seven runs that the Owls scored in the second game was the most runs they had scored since they won, 12-1, over Niagara on Mar. 4. Seeing the offense roll like that was encouraging for the Owls.
“We were more aggressive in the box during the second game and did a good job with our pitch selection and choosing which pitches to swing at,” said Burkett, who went 2-for-4 in the second game. “It’s going to be a matter of making good swings and not jumping at pitches that are out of the strike zone.”
Burkett, Sikes and Sharon Swanson went 2-for-4 in the second game, with Cross and Hackett going 2-for-3. Cross and Hackett also had hits in the first game.
The Black and Gold play their first Atlantic Sun Conference games this coming weekend, when they travel to Florida to take on North Florida on Friday and Jacksonville on Saturday, both doubleheaders. Their first game on Friday against North Florida begins at 4 p.m.
